If you thought the mob stopped using nicknames to refer to their associates, Congressman-elect Michael Grimm, New York Republican, will tell you otherwise. Mr. Grimm, a former undercover FBI agent who investigated organized crime on Wall Street, earned the nickname “Mikey Suits” by those he infiltrated during his crime-fighting days.
“Whenever I traveled on a plane I always wear a suit also, because I was a former FBI agent. I always dressed the part, but when I’m in the car, this is it. This is what you get in the car,” he said, dressed in jeans and a collared rugby shirt, to reporters on Sunday before a lunch with fellow freshmen GOP’ers. “I’m a suit guy. My nickname undercover was ‘Mikey Suits.’ The mob gave me that name.”
Congressman-elect Grimm, who won New York’s 13th District seat back for the GOP after defeating Rep. Michael McMahon, a Democrat, who won the seat in 2008 from scandal-plagued Republican Vito Fosella.
Not only would Mr. Grimm wear nice suits when he infiltrated wear a wire underneath those suits, unbeknownst to the individuals he was about to bust.
“I was deep undercover with the FBI, and they gave me the name ‘Mikey Suits,’ because I always wore a suit wherever I went,” he explained. I pointed out to Mr. Grimm that he used to wear a wire as well, and he replied, “I usually had a wire on too, but they didn’t know that part otherwise they would’ve called me Mikey Wires but they didn’t know that.”
Given Mr. Grimm’s dangerous line of work, it is not difficult to imagine what the mob could have called him if they knew about the wire he was wearing. Thankfully, Congressman Grimm, also a former Marine, is safe and sound today and appears ready to battle political gangs on Capitol Hill.
“I came into this with the hopes of possibly putting together my own caucus of former law enforcement/former military,” he said when asked about his own plans.
